Help that's Heaven sent

An interesting story of divine intervention jump-started the Loads of Love donations to Staten Island residents from the Pontiac Bible Church.

Members of the church, surrounding communities, businesses and others came together and gathered donations to send to those experiencing the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and the nor’easter the northeastern states have been pummeled with in the past few weeks.

Becky Siegel, a member of the Pontiac Bible Church, said she woke up last week with the words “Staten Island” strong in her mind.

“I’ve never been there and I don’t know anyone there. I just really prayed about it and I felt God was laying it on me and I blindly started searching the Internet for bible churches in Staten Island and the second one I came across, I read its website and reached out to the pastor,” Siegel explained.

They talked about what items the folks from First Bible Church of Staten Island needed.

Siegel began working on gathering those items together.

She posted a Facebook message on her page and the church’s page, and donations and help immediately began pouring in.

Pontiac Bible Church Pastor Brian Bill said that the remnants of another ministry that is offered at the church also gave organizers more material to work with.

“We had a ministry at our church last week called Caring Closet and we had a lot of clothing and we wanted to help our neighbors, but we also wanted to help people in our nation, so I didn’t know how we were going to do that. So, I contacted a couple of ministries out on the east coast,” Bill said.

“We had trailers lined up and people donating U-Hauls and in 12 hours time, Pontiac Big R, Pontiac Bible Church, Morris Big R, many other companies, people, everyone was jumping on board in the first 12 hours after it was posted on Facebook (last) Friday morning. It was phenomenal. There have been donations from Bloomington to Joliet,” said Siegel from one of the U-Hauls headed out to New York Thursday afternoon. As she talked, she said they were a part of the way through Pennsylvania.

Bill also agrees with Siegel that the outpouring of help and donations was just phenomenal.

“A business in town dropped off some cash. The Farm Bureau bought about $300 worth of cleaning supplies, like bleach, Lysol, along with toothpaste and toothbrushes. Another business that really jumped in was Big R. They ended up collecting 15 shopping carts filled with cleaning supplies, which was pretty exciting. They partnered with the Big R in Morris. It was cleaning supplies, boots, gloves, hats, blankets and jackets. There was even a lady who came to church Tuesday wearing her winter coat and just left it there. There are a lot of people that are very moved and really wanted to help and it just kept growing,” he said.

Page 2 of 2 - Siegel said she went into this project blindly, but wanted to give back to others in the memory of her late son.

“Pontiac and Odell and everybody were so phenomenal after my son (Mitchell Robinson) died. Through this whole process, I’ve been wanting to help and repay somehow and give back,” she said, explaining that her teenage son died a year ago last fall and, since he was active in the church, she knew this was something he would have cared about.

She added that she really didn’t know why exactly she was so compelled specifically to find this church to help, but she believes her prayers were answered in an interesting twist to the story.

“Here’s the craziest twist of all. Some businessmen in Morris had jumped on board as well and in their circle was a man they had just hired to be CEO of the Boy Scout Council in their area. Mark Ryan and his wife, Kelly, had just moved to the area last November. Their home church was the First Bible Church of Staten Island,” she said. “We had a complete confirmation from God that this was what we were supposed to be doing.”

The Kellys have also taken part in the trip to deliver the donations to New York.

Bill said that this isn’t the first time the church and community have banded together to help others in a time of need after a natural disaster.

“When Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, the Bible Church sent about five different teams down there over a year‘s time. We partnered with a Bible Church down there. When we hear of tragedy and hear of things going on around the world, we just say ‘Lord, we’re available. How do you want to use us?’ In these kinds of events, it’s hard to know what to do right away. It’s so gut wrenching, and now with another storm going through the Northeast earlier Wednesday and Thursday, it’s just a sad situation. We just want to go in the name of Jesus and give what we can and serve in any way we can,” he said.